Sunday, January 27, 2013

These days, Calculated Risk has become a go-to source for Wall Street, the media, academics and anyone else looking for authoritative analysis of housing and the broader economy. When McBride makes a prediction — as when he called a housing bottom early in 2012 — the housing world takes note.

"If you only follow one economics blog, it has to be Calculated Risk," said James Hamilton, an economics professor at UC San Diego. "If you find yourself reaching a different conclusion from Bill about where the economy is headed, my recommendation is think again."

Although many economics blogs have ideological slants, Calculated Risk established a reputation as an objective source of commentary on an increasingly politicized topic. The blog's name — borrowed from that of a friend's boat — accurately implies an impartial, yet edgy, take on the economy.

But McBride himself has remained somewhat a mystery. Even while promoting his work, McBride shunned the spotlight personally. He wrote anonymously during the first years he blogged, which only heightened interest among a growing number of followers.

"He was one of the first people to stand up and, objectively, just by brutally falling back on the facts, just say that the emperor didn't have any clothes," said longtime reader Stan Humphries, Zillow.com's chief economist. "It was this deep mystery about who this guy actually was. I remember the first time I went and met him, it was like meeting Batman."

After correctly calling the top of sales activity in 2005 and prices in 2006, [McBride] proclaimed last February that the “housing bottom is here” in a blog post that laid out all the dirty details. “I’ve tried over the years to call the turns when they arrive. I’m trying to call it when it happens and not wait six months or a year,” said Mr. McBride in an interview last February.